Chapter 50

Lady of the Lake 2

The man sat typing away on his keyboard summarizing his recently acquired holdings on the Buena Vista property. The people didn't know what a land mine they had been sitting on. After selling their houses for severely under their market value, Blake wanted to see the looks on their stupid faces after the new landowners uncovered the rich deposits of minerals under the dusty ground. He just made his firm an easy million dollars.

His boss called him into the grand office. It was surrounded by open glass windows offering a choice panoramic view of downtown. He managed to hide the jealousy in his eyes.

"Congratulations on the win," his boss applauded him. "I would have settled giving a few hundreds dollar more in compensation to the original owners, but you smooth talker, you undercut them even more!" The man dug a fleshy elbow into Blake's side. "You remind me of myself when I was your age. Keep this up and you'll be running the joint in no time."

Blake fought to hide the irritation in his smile. That had been his plan all along. His doddering, foolish head of the company didn't know the difference between a real gold mine and a fool's errand. It was up to fresh, young go-getters like him to increase his corporation's earnings.

The next words out of his boss' mouth nearly floored him.

"I'm giving you a choice opportunity, Blake. You make this deal and we're going to promote you to senior head of operations."

The young man perked up at that announcement. That position was just one step up from being made partner. This was a chance of a lifetime!

There was nothing in his life at the moment but his work. His luxury car drove to his high rise apartment, but the swanky abode was empty without a wife or child to greet him. He never had an opportunity to settle down. He was close, once, until a cold night changed everything.

His thoughts were pulled back to his gregarious employer. "Here's the papers that'll list the terms and conditions we want you to follow, but before you look over them, you better start booking your bus ticket now. Paradise Lake is hard to get to nowadays."

The papers drift to the floor like a dove's feather.

"Par-Paradise Lake?" Blake's voice quakes with emotion he thought he'd cleansed from himself long ago.

"You're from there, right?" His boss's steely eyes search his warily. "This isn't going to be an issue, is it? We've already checked with legal. It won't be a conflict of interest. If not, we can give this project to Sanders."

The former hockey player gulped as he considered his options quickly. Sanders was his biggest rival, but his only thoughts were of a girl with dark hair and an acerbic wit. A flutter of longing and hope raced through his mind. Maybe this would be a chance to make amends.

"No, it's no problem at all. The townsfolk will trust whatever I tell them. You can count on me to close the deal."

His soul feels as dry as the lakebed.

The guy who played Blake was a smooth talker. It's sad how they wanted to get rid of the lake to make a parking lot for a mall. Monica sailing in on a boat with candles and smoke looked really awesome. I liked Laurel was played by a hard of hearing actress, but Jeremy should not have called him dad so soon. The man's a stranger to him.

It right after this chapter that my life got busy, and I stopped writing for a bit. I think the quality of my writing dips after this.

Grignard